Manchester United to reject any January bids for Eric Bailly – report

Spanish side Sevilla have expressed interest in securing the Ivorian on a loan deal until the end of the season.

Bailly, who only has 11 appearance this season, had fallen out of favour under Jose Mourinho, prompting various clubs to show interest.

But according to Ducker, Man United are reluctant to let the 24-year-old depart the club in January.

The club remains intent on securing another central defender, with Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly a player who United, among many others, have expressed interest in signing for a big fee.

However, any deal for the defender in January is virtually impossible. This month is simply not a good one in which to conduct transfer business unless an obvious option is there. Letting Bailly leave, therefore, would be ill-advised not only because he is a fundamentally a good defender and, more pertinently, replacing him this month would be impossible.

Mourinho stopped trusting Bailly, relegating him to obscurity as a result, but he has the chance under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to restore his place alongside Victor Lindelof in the starting XI.